Raays - Plaays (Leaving) [Electronic Music]

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's January 15th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

I’ve mentioned a couple of times before how I’m not a fan of live recordings, and here I am recommending my second of the newsletter. Never say never.

If you don’t know Leaving Records, then I recommend diving into their Bandcamp page which is perhaps the best way to keep track of their diverse roster, eclectic catalogue and eager release program. It also appears head honcho Matthew David is not just sitting in the label office all day, he’s also been organising an ongoing community concert series, the matter of factly entitled, “Listen to Music Outside in the Daylight Under a Tree“ in Los Angeles’ Kinship Studios, which is where these recordings from Raays were captured.

Taking a one man, studio based project live is no mean feat, and don’t get me started on if one person and their machines can ever be a fulfilling, live electronic music spectacle, but to keep his shows fresh Raays spread his sound palette across a modular system and drum pad sampler which allows for a fully improvised beat science experience, each track never to be repeated, and rather like the Featherload album the results are pleasingly fluid, but in Raays case even further out.

The beats are warm and the sonic landscape lush, synth pads shimmer in the light of two suns, as machine sounds of all descriptions are united by mind expanding intent and buzz around the significant, pulsing rather than pounding percussive structures. Tempos fluctuate and sonic intensity ebbs and flows, the dancers may have been disappointed but the tokers and trippers must have had a field day.

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Playlist Companion

Find Raays in the Slowtronic Playlist.